A TASTE OF SLOVAKIA.

Hello and welcome to this evening's edition of Jean's Family Recipes - a series dedicated to revealing the cooking secrets that Jean's family have passed down from generation to generation.

Tonight we will feature - my personal favorite - SLAVIC PIEROGI!!!!!!!

-INTERESTING FACTOID POP-UP: Because pierogi are small and it is assumed that you will eat several/many at a time, the term pierogi is already the plural form of the word-

Step 1. Invite your Slavic mother, Paula Plichta, to your house and have her make the pierogi dough while you are at work.



Step 2. Once your dough has risen for half an hour, it is time for the party to begin.

-Interesting FACTOID POP-UP: the secret ingredient in the pierogi dough is SOUR CREAM-



Step 3: Roll out the dough and use the mouth of a glass to cut-out evenly-sized circular pieces of dough.



Step 4: Grab the pierogi wrapper from your mother and takeover the pierogi-making process. HINT HINT: This is when the FUN part begins.



Step 5: Place any type of filling into the wrapper. Be sure to not overfill the wrapper, or it will be difficult to seal!!! I am filling this with PRUNE JAM (to make lekvar pierogi)...we also used SAUERKRAUT that was sauteed in butter for our other batch. Feel free to invite me, QUALITY CONTROL SERGEANT - SPECIAL UNIT: PIEROGI FILLING, to inspect your filling to dough ratio to prevent pierogi breakage.



Step 6: Fold one end of dough to the other like a taco and press against the edges of the filling to seal it in. Make sure to press firmly so no filling can escape!! Use your thumb to stretch out the flappers of the pierogi. Take a fork and press down along the entire edge of the flappers. Do this on both sides. Now your piergo has a cool mohawk!



Step 7: TADA. A pierog is born.



Step 8: Place pierog with the rest of his pierogi family and wait for a large pot of water to come to a boil.

Please note sauerkraut filling at the bottom of this picture.

Step 9: Once the pierogi have boiled and risen to the top of the pot, take them out and hand them over to the SAUTEE SLAVE. Sautee the pierogi in butter.



Step 10: Remove pierogi from sautee pan and place in a bowl to serve. Don't worry about presentation because they probably won't last very long.

-Interesting FACTOID POP-UP: It is of no surprise that Slovakia was once a part of the Kingdom of HUNGaRY many, many years ago and remained an important part of the Hungarian state until 1918. Of course a kingdom of hungry people would invent something as amazing as pierogi. HAHA PUN. CHORTLE CHORTLE-

YUMMMMMMMMMMM.

Thank you for watching tonight's episode of Jean's Family Recipes. I leave you with an excerpt from Wikipedia:

Pierogi, from the Proto-Slavic "pir" (festivity), is the name most commonly used in English speaking areas to refer to a variety of Slavic semicircular (or, in some cuisines, square) boiled dumplings of unleavened dough stuffed with varying ingredients. In English, the word pierogi and its variants are pronounced with a stress on the letter "o".

Pierogi are UNLEAVENED!?!??!??! OMG what a great meal idea while keeping KOSHER FOR PASSOVER!!!!!!!

Until next time - DOBRU CHUT.